January 1, 2022 • 16 mins
Improve your public speaking skills
In this episode, you'll learn 5 simple tips to help you become a more effective communicator.
Andrea Spyros, Behavior Design expert and Tiny Habits Certified Coach, shows leaders and their teams a simple, science-based system to solve challenges with ease. Her keynotes and workshops help organizations break through the Myth of Motivation to see real results in all areas of operation.
Andy talked about her entrepreneurial journey and how she builds community in our season 2 interview (episode 34). Because she's a professional speaker, I asked Andy to share some strategy about public speaking. Practice Andy's tips and you'll most certainly improve your public speaking skills and increase your confidence. #100%
When she's not practicing her presentations, you can find Andrea Spyros painting, playing bass guitar, or amusing her friends with geeky math jokes.
Contact Andrea at Andrea.Spyros@TinyHabitsCoach.com and learn more on her website: AndreaSpyros.com
Hi Friend - If you’re enjoying Stories of Change and Creativity, make sure to subscribe, rate, and leave a 5-star review—it helps more people discover the show.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Judy Oskam (00:06):
Welcome to Stories of Change and Creativity.
I'm Judy Oskam, a universityprofessor, Gallup strengths
coach and Tiny Habits certifiedcoach.
On this podcast, we featureentrepreneurs who inspire
motivate and e ducate.
We ll, if you want to improveyour public speaking skills,
then this is the interview foryou.
(00:28):
Behavior change expert and TinyHabits certified coach Andrea
Spyros is a pro.
She's a professional speaker andshe leads workshops and training
sessions with companies andorganizations.
I asked Andy to share her tipsand strategies about public
speaking.
Andrea Spyros (00:48):
I have five great tips for you today, Judy, I'm
glad to be back with you.
And I love to share how tobecome a better speaker because
as a speaker, I'm, I'm verygenerous when I see other people
speaking, cuz I know how thefeeling of her reputation it's,
it's the number one fear.
Most people have publicspeaking, but also especially
with paid speakers.
(01:09):
I cannot, it drives me crazylike nails on a chalkboard when
I see a bad paid public speaker.
And, and I think actually,because I'm such an engaging
speaker in workshop, you know,and conduct a lot of workshops
sets me apart and I gotta tellyou I'm just being me.
But I realize that the things Ido naturally are the things that
(01:30):
other people can do as well.
And they're not hard.
Now I wanna under, before I tellyou what the five are, I do
wanna underscore and say, youmight have to practice some of
these skills and you wanna makethem natural, right?
Because there's nothing worsethan seeing someone who's
coached.
I was watching a Ted talk and itwas very obvious that the person
(01:50):
had been coached to use theirhands.
And so they said the line thatthey were both supposed to say,
and then they moved their handup in a so motion.
But because they didn't cometogether, it felt very forced
and it didn't help them lookcredible as a speaker.
Now they had great informationand I wasn't judging them, but
(02:11):
I, I noticed those things.
And so I say, I'm not tellingyou to do things just because I
say, I'm just sharing somethings that will, when you can
make them natural.
And they're not hard that youwill become a better public,
more in engaging public speaker.
And really if you wanna havereach an impact and I'm sure
that's why you're speaking, thenyou really do need to become a
(02:33):
better public speaker becausethat's how people will listen to
you.
It really is about doing aservice to your audience because
here's what happens.
If you're super nervous, if youuncomfortable, your audience
feels that and they worry aboutyou.
They probably worry.
And when they're worried aboutyou failing up there or being
(02:53):
nervous or uncomfortable, theycannot hear the valuable
information that you are wantingto share.
And, and I have one story,that'll say I, I used to go to a
lot of, uh, public speaking, themoth story slams and everyone's
super supportive and one persondid not practice.
And they encourage you topractice.
One person didn't practice.
(03:13):
They didn't prep.
They didn't do anything.
And they got up there and theyhad whole minutes of silence and
sweating and you could feel theaudience.
It was like they were on acliff.
And when the person got off thestage, they cheered for them.
But they cheered because theywere relieved, cuz it was so
(03:33):
stressful for them as theaudience.
So my five tips are this one,very your voice.
And I'll go into them deeply,but a little preface.
And this is like a, I'm gonna,I'm gonna get a little meta here
because one of the tips, thesecret sip sixth tip is what I
call sign posting.
So that means tell'em whatyou're gonna tell'em then tell
'em then tell'em what you toldthem.
(03:54):
And the speakers who do thesethree things.
People view them as morepowerful speakers.
They remember what their, whatthe audience members remember
what they have to say and theyjust have a more positive
overview.
So I'm gonna say, here's whatI'm gonna tell you.
Vary your voice, breathe,hydrate, pause, and stand up.
(04:18):
Now let's go to the first one,get into those be because I, I
think people don't think there'sa strategy here and we can all
learn how to do this.
Yes you can.
Now I come from a Greek family.
So we are always talking withour hands and our voices and we
have a lot of variety in ourvoice and a lot of movement.
Like we would make terribleactors because really acting is
about this, you know, very, theface.
(04:40):
There's not as much.
It's the face and not a lot offace.
Like it is really when you lookat actors, it's kind of, I don't
even know how they're doing it.
Um, so vary your voice.
Now, most people think they'redoing this, but they actually
have about three notes that theyuse.
So they go a little bit up hereand then they go a little bit
down here and then they'repretty much right around here.
(05:01):
Three notes is not variety.
Like you, there're not very,very many songs that, that only
use three notes.
That aren't interesting.
So you wanna, when you'repracticing what you're going to
say, you do want to think aboutwhere is it that there's some
excitement in here?
Where is it that it's very, veryimportant that I stress?
(05:22):
Or where is it a little bit moreintimate, right?
Sometimes we're talking aboutsomething it's a little more
intimate and so you wanna varyyour voice.
Roger Love has some great adviceon this.
He, he has five differentfactors and it's pace, pitch,
tone, volume, and melody.
So pace pitch, tone, volume, andmelody pacing is am I going
(05:44):
really, really quiet quick?
Or am I going very slowly?
And there are times for that.
Again, you wanna make itnatural.
I didn't plan this.
I'm speaking off the cuff, butit's natural for me to say, you
know, sometimes you wanna goreally very quickly and
sometimes you want to go slowlyand then you wanna vary your
notes in terms of, um, pitch.
(06:06):
So some people you naturallytalk in a very, very high voice,
even if you're a man it's notabout that something.
And some people talk very, very,very low and you wanna make sure
you're at a comfortable zone inthose two and you're varying it.
And then, um, your tone, youwant it.
Uh he's Roger, Roger Love is somuch better at this, but all
(06:29):
those pieces, like the biggestpiece I can tell you is like
volume.
You wanna vary your volume.
You wanna vary all those bits.
And the thing is ascendingmelodies.
So a lot of people are taught togo down at a period or comma.
So it would look like this.
Here's my name.
It's Andrea Spyros.
(06:51):
I'm a public speaker, right?
Those are going down.
And that kind of brings youraudience down.
Now there's sometimes when youwanna, you don't, you don't
wanna tell a tragic story withan, but here's how it could
sound.
My name is Andrea Sypros I'm apublic speaker and I do great
workshops on behavior design.
Much more interesting for thelistening.
(07:11):
Most more interesting for theear for listening.
Yeah.
Now if I'm sharing a tragicstory, I'm not gonna say, and
then the person had this horror,well thing happened to them.
Like I'm not gonna say that.
Right, right, right.
You're gonna, you wanna do like,just like in behavior design,
you wanna do some matching matchwhat you're saying, the words
you're saying to, but most ofthe time we're automatically out
of habit speaking in kind ofthis down tone.
(07:32):
So lift people, lift, lift yourmelody up, go up the scale and
uh, you'll be you moreinteresting.
So that's very your voice nextbreathe.
So many people don't breathewhen they're public speaking and
I get it.
Yeah.
First of all, you have a lot of,
Judy Oskam (07:51):
because they're nervous, they're nervous.
Andrea Spyros (07:53):
They're, they're nervous.
They have a time limit.
They wanna get all theinformation out and they don't
wanna miss anything.
And so they gore really, reallyquickly.
And then they just keep goingand they don't realize that they
need to just put some more comsin there, you know, put some
more coms in there.
Right.
And, and, and pace yourself.
Like if you, a lot of timespeople don't practice.
And so that's why they'reworried about time.
(08:15):
And the thing is, if you're notbreathing, then you're gonna
make your nervousness more.
Because when you stop breathingis when you get more nervous.
I, I shared this and when we didour podcast, that fear or
nervousness is excitementwithout the breath.
So if you just breathe, thenyour nervousness will become
(08:36):
excitement.
And you can harness that toshare with your audience.
And that's super for importantbecause your audience is
speeding off of your energy whenyou're doing that.
So if you take a moment tobreathe, do some breathing
before, and also here's thething I know.
Even when I speak, sometimes Ithink, wow, that breath was
(08:59):
really long and it feelsuncomfortable, but it's not as
long to your audience as it isto you in the spotlight.
And that's really important toknow.
And again, since we're, we thisback to the audience, because
you wanna be able to deliverwhatever you're delivering to
your audience.
And now let's just say youraudience could be your team.
(09:24):
Your audience could be your,your students, the people, you,
your students, the people youreport to your audience could be
anything like that.
It just doesn't, doesn't have tobe a huge organizational theater
filled full of people.
And if you are, you know,breathing and doing all these
things, they're going to listento you more.
(09:44):
So that's, um, breathing, don'tbe afraid to breathe and
definitely breathe through yournervousness.
It also has a profound effect onthe brain, right?
So it turns down despite flightpart of your brain and turns up
the creative problem, solvingpart of your brain that will
allow you to then remember whatyou're going to say, because
basically we're always afraid ofwhat we, we are, you know, if
(10:08):
we're gonna forget our lines.
Right, right.
And, and, and, you know,there's, there's many ways to,
to deal with that.
But if you're in fear, you'redefinitely not gonna remember
your line.
So you definitely wanna breatheto get yourself outta that.
The third thing is, you know,people laugh at this, but
hydrate there's volumes andvolumes and volumes of
information on hydration for thebody hydration for the brain.
(10:31):
I mean, not just hydration foryour Sal glands, cuz you're
gonna be speaking.
Right.
And so you will put yourself ina better mindset and a better,
um, you know, whole body set forspeaking.
If you, you know, mindfullyhydrate, now I'm not saying
drink a gallon before you go onstage.
That was not gonna work.
(10:52):
Yeah.
Judy Oskam (10:52):
That would not be good.
Andrea Spyros (10:53):
But the day before, right?
Definitely like if you're not,oh, plan hydrating planet the
day before, extra hydrate, havesome, a little bit of water with
you on, on stage.
And that will help.
I mean, it really helps yourbrain.
Um, and it all definitely helpsyour body so you can speak more
clearly.
The next one is, um, pausing,and this is the scariest one
(11:14):
besides breathing.
It kind of goes, yeah, it kindof goes with breathing but
pausing, right?
People think that they're afraidto pause and on clubhouse where
you and I do a lot of work,pausing is a little different
because there's an energy to theroom on clubhouse and the way it
works.
(11:35):
So that's a little bit artfulpause.
I'm still working on that.
But pausing for your audienceactually gives their time, their
brain time to integrate whatyou've said.
So it's kind of like ifsomeone's constantly showering
you with information, you canonly take so much, but, or I, I
(11:55):
just thought of it this way.
It's like, if, if I'm throwingthings to you, if I'm throwing
balls to you, you can only catchso many balls.
Judy Oskam (12:00):
Right?
Andrea Spyros (12:01):
Right.
But if I pause and give you achance to put them in a place
and put them down, then you canreceive more of those.
And it's the same way withinformation.
If you keep throwing your moreinformation, they can only
handle so much.
And then the rest of it justgets lost.
And so if you give them a pause,they can integrate that
(12:22):
information and then be ready toreceive more.
Now I think it's reallyimportant for people who are
speaking to remember that thepause is for the audience,
right?
It's for the people that you arespeaking to.
So you're doing them a serviceand that they will be grateful
to you for giving them thattime.
(12:44):
And that it's not about you.
You will have to do somebreathing.
Maybe the first few times you dothis so that you can deal with
your own feelings of anxietyabout being silent in your
meeting on stage or whateveraudience you have.
Now I have a couple tricks hereor you can maybe, maybe you
could ask a question too.
(13:05):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that is one of the tips Ihave is like ask a question and
then be silent.
Because obviously if you ask aquestion, you would listen.
If you're asking them to writeit down, tell them, especially I
do this a lot with virtualpresentations, tell them we're
gonna do this for a minuteinquiry.
You know, whatever question youhave or think about this and
(13:27):
then time it so that it is aminute.
I actually, when I do my virtualpresentations, I have a timer
it's set to a minute.
We do a minute.
I give them a ten secondwarning.
I also feedback.
And then I am quiet for a wholeminute, but that's the way you
could.
It's hard, hard.
It's hard as a speaker too.
But when I, when I set that up,it helps me and helps them.
(13:51):
Now I'm better at pausing justfor a pause.
Now I've done that.
But that's a great way, likeasking a question and telling
them the exact amount of timethat you're going to be silent
and even say, I'm gonna be quietto give you time to fully think
about that.
Right.
Then they expect it.
It's like you've created acontract because what most
people fear is that they'regonna lose the audience that
(14:14):
they're gonna look foolish, butyou're not.
So the pause is so importantbecause the audience really
needs time to go.
What do I think about that?
What do I feel about that?
Where am I gonna link that withwhat I already know?
How am I gonna act on that?
And just do some integration.
So that hands down is reallyimportant.
(14:35):
And the final hip is to stand upnow, especially with virtual
presentations, most people dostand in a lot of other
presentations, but some don't,I'm always surprised.
I stand during all my virtualpresentations.
I stand during this podcast,even though it's a podcast, no
one can tell, but I think peoplecan tell because there's a
different tone in my voice.
(14:56):
I feel more stable and activethan I do when I'm sitting down.
And I think that comes throughin my voice.
And I think people can tell thateven if you can't tell for
yourself, right, and you wannabe at the ready for your
audience, you wanna be ready todeliver.
You wanna be able to Zig and zagwith your own self, even if
(15:16):
you're not taking Q and a, butyou wanna be able to go, Ooh, in
your head, you're thinking, oh,that's not, I'm, I'm going a
little off track, but I canwrite that.
And where do you have moreflexibility when you're standing
and you don't necessarily havethat when you're sitting.
So I think that energy comesthrough when you're standing.
I think that, uh, you are ableto recover from any strays,
(15:38):
right?
That you, you may think theaudience, your audience
generally doesn't know that.
Um, but you might know it.
You're able to recover andyou're able to be more powerful
speaker when you're standing up.
So my five tips vary your voice,breathe, hydrate, pause, and
(15:59):
stand up.
Judy Oskam (16:00):
Love it, Andy.
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to share this withmy students and our listeners
all over the world.
So fantastic.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Andrea Spyros (16:09):
You're so welcome, Judy.
I always love working with you.
I look forward to, uh, oursessions and, uh, anybody who
needs just, you know, reach outand we will connect.
Judy Oskam (16:20):
Sounds Great.
Thanks.
Thank you for listening toStories of Change and
Creativity.
Check out the show notes formore information about this
episode.
And remember if you have a storyto tell or know one who does
reach out to me@judyosm.com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Stories of Change and Creativity.
I'm Judy Oskam, a universityprofessor, Gallup strengths
coach and Tiny Habits certifiedcoach.
On this podcast, we featureentrepreneurs who inspire
motivate and e ducate.
We ll, if you want to improveyour public speaking skills,
then this is the interview foryou.
(00:28):
Behavior change expert and TinyHabits certified coach Andrea
Spyros is a pro.
She's a professional speaker andshe leads workshops and training
sessions with companies andorganizations.
I asked Andy to share her tipsand strategies about public
speaking.
Andrea Spyros (00:48):
I have five great tips for you today, Judy, I'm
glad to be back with you.
And I love to share how tobecome a better speaker because
as a speaker, I'm, I'm verygenerous when I see other people
speaking, cuz I know how thefeeling of her reputation it's,
it's the number one fear.
Most people have publicspeaking, but also especially
with paid speakers.
(01:09):
I cannot, it drives me crazylike nails on a chalkboard when
I see a bad paid public speaker.
And, and I think actually,because I'm such an engaging
speaker in workshop, you know,and conduct a lot of workshops
sets me apart and I gotta tellyou I'm just being me.
But I realize that the things Ido naturally are the things that
(01:30):
other people can do as well.
And they're not hard.
Now I wanna under, before I tellyou what the five are, I do
wanna underscore and say, youmight have to practice some of
these skills and you wanna makethem natural, right?
Because there's nothing worsethan seeing someone who's
coached.
I was watching a Ted talk and itwas very obvious that the person
(01:50):
had been coached to use theirhands.
And so they said the line thatthey were both supposed to say,
and then they moved their handup in a so motion.
But because they didn't cometogether, it felt very forced
and it didn't help them lookcredible as a speaker.
Now they had great informationand I wasn't judging them, but
(02:11):
I, I noticed those things.
And so I say, I'm not tellingyou to do things just because I
say, I'm just sharing somethings that will, when you can
make them natural.
And they're not hard that youwill become a better public,
more in engaging public speaker.
And really if you wanna havereach an impact and I'm sure
that's why you're speaking, thenyou really do need to become a
(02:33):
better public speaker becausethat's how people will listen to
you.
It really is about doing aservice to your audience because
here's what happens.
If you're super nervous, if youuncomfortable, your audience
feels that and they worry aboutyou.
They probably worry.
And when they're worried aboutyou failing up there or being
(02:53):
nervous or uncomfortable, theycannot hear the valuable
information that you are wantingto share.
And, and I have one story,that'll say I, I used to go to a
lot of, uh, public speaking, themoth story slams and everyone's
super supportive and one persondid not practice.
And they encourage you topractice.
One person didn't practice.
(03:13):
They didn't prep.
They didn't do anything.
And they got up there and theyhad whole minutes of silence and
sweating and you could feel theaudience.
It was like they were on acliff.
And when the person got off thestage, they cheered for them.
But they cheered because theywere relieved, cuz it was so
(03:33):
stressful for them as theaudience.
So my five tips are this one,very your voice.
And I'll go into them deeply,but a little preface.
And this is like a, I'm gonna,I'm gonna get a little meta here
because one of the tips, thesecret sip sixth tip is what I
call sign posting.
So that means tell'em whatyou're gonna tell'em then tell
'em then tell'em what you toldthem.
(03:54):
And the speakers who do thesethree things.
People view them as morepowerful speakers.
They remember what their, whatthe audience members remember
what they have to say and theyjust have a more positive
overview.
So I'm gonna say, here's whatI'm gonna tell you.
Vary your voice, breathe,hydrate, pause, and stand up.
(04:18):
Now let's go to the first one,get into those be because I, I
think people don't think there'sa strategy here and we can all
learn how to do this.
Yes you can.
Now I come from a Greek family.
So we are always talking withour hands and our voices and we
have a lot of variety in ourvoice and a lot of movement.
Like we would make terribleactors because really acting is
about this, you know, very, theface.
(04:40):
There's not as much.
It's the face and not a lot offace.
Like it is really when you lookat actors, it's kind of, I don't
even know how they're doing it.
Um, so vary your voice.
Now, most people think they'redoing this, but they actually
have about three notes that theyuse.
So they go a little bit up hereand then they go a little bit
down here and then they'repretty much right around here.
(05:01):
Three notes is not variety.
Like you, there're not very,very many songs that, that only
use three notes.
That aren't interesting.
So you wanna, when you'repracticing what you're going to
say, you do want to think aboutwhere is it that there's some
excitement in here?
Where is it that it's very, veryimportant that I stress?
(05:22):
Or where is it a little bit moreintimate, right?
Sometimes we're talking aboutsomething it's a little more
intimate and so you wanna varyyour voice.
Roger Love has some great adviceon this.
He, he has five differentfactors and it's pace, pitch,
tone, volume, and melody.
So pace pitch, tone, volume, andmelody pacing is am I going
(05:44):
really, really quiet quick?
Or am I going very slowly?
And there are times for that.
Again, you wanna make itnatural.
I didn't plan this.
I'm speaking off the cuff, butit's natural for me to say, you
know, sometimes you wanna goreally very quickly and
sometimes you want to go slowlyand then you wanna vary your
notes in terms of, um, pitch.
(06:06):
So some people you naturallytalk in a very, very high voice,
even if you're a man it's notabout that something.
And some people talk very, very,very low and you wanna make sure
you're at a comfortable zone inthose two and you're varying it.
And then, um, your tone, youwant it.
Uh he's Roger, Roger Love is somuch better at this, but all
(06:29):
those pieces, like the biggestpiece I can tell you is like
volume.
You wanna vary your volume.
You wanna vary all those bits.
And the thing is ascendingmelodies.
So a lot of people are taught togo down at a period or comma.
So it would look like this.
Here's my name.
It's Andrea Spyros.
(06:51):
I'm a public speaker, right?
Those are going down.
And that kind of brings youraudience down.
Now there's sometimes when youwanna, you don't, you don't
wanna tell a tragic story withan, but here's how it could
sound.
My name is Andrea Sypros I'm apublic speaker and I do great
workshops on behavior design.
Much more interesting for thelistening.
(07:11):
Most more interesting for theear for listening.
Yeah.
Now if I'm sharing a tragicstory, I'm not gonna say, and
then the person had this horror,well thing happened to them.
Like I'm not gonna say that.
Right, right, right.
You're gonna, you wanna do like,just like in behavior design,
you wanna do some matching matchwhat you're saying, the words
you're saying to, but most ofthe time we're automatically out
of habit speaking in kind ofthis down tone.
(07:32):
So lift people, lift, lift yourmelody up, go up the scale and
uh, you'll be you moreinteresting.
So that's very your voice nextbreathe.
So many people don't breathewhen they're public speaking and
I get it.
Yeah.
First of all, you have a lot of,
Judy Oskam (07:51):
because they're nervous, they're nervous.
Andrea Spyros (07:53):
They're, they're nervous.
They have a time limit.
They wanna get all theinformation out and they don't
wanna miss anything.
And so they gore really, reallyquickly.
And then they just keep goingand they don't realize that they
need to just put some more comsin there, you know, put some
more coms in there.
Right.
And, and, and pace yourself.
Like if you, a lot of timespeople don't practice.
And so that's why they'reworried about time.
(08:15):
And the thing is, if you're notbreathing, then you're gonna
make your nervousness more.
Because when you stop breathingis when you get more nervous.
I, I shared this and when we didour podcast, that fear or
nervousness is excitementwithout the breath.
So if you just breathe, thenyour nervousness will become
(08:36):
excitement.
And you can harness that toshare with your audience.
And that's super for importantbecause your audience is
speeding off of your energy whenyou're doing that.
So if you take a moment tobreathe, do some breathing
before, and also here's thething I know.
Even when I speak, sometimes Ithink, wow, that breath was
(08:59):
really long and it feelsuncomfortable, but it's not as
long to your audience as it isto you in the spotlight.
And that's really important toknow.
And again, since we're, we thisback to the audience, because
you wanna be able to deliverwhatever you're delivering to
your audience.
And now let's just say youraudience could be your team.
(09:24):
Your audience could be your,your students, the people, you,
your students, the people youreport to your audience could be
anything like that.
It just doesn't, doesn't have tobe a huge organizational theater
filled full of people.
And if you are, you know,breathing and doing all these
things, they're going to listento you more.
(09:44):
So that's, um, breathing, don'tbe afraid to breathe and
definitely breathe through yournervousness.
It also has a profound effect onthe brain, right?
So it turns down despite flightpart of your brain and turns up
the creative problem, solvingpart of your brain that will
allow you to then remember whatyou're going to say, because
basically we're always afraid ofwhat we, we are, you know, if
(10:08):
we're gonna forget our lines.
Right, right.
And, and, and, you know,there's, there's many ways to,
to deal with that.
But if you're in fear, you'redefinitely not gonna remember
your line.
So you definitely wanna breatheto get yourself outta that.
The third thing is, you know,people laugh at this, but
hydrate there's volumes andvolumes and volumes of
information on hydration for thebody hydration for the brain.
(10:31):
I mean, not just hydration foryour Sal glands, cuz you're
gonna be speaking.
Right.
And so you will put yourself ina better mindset and a better,
um, you know, whole body set forspeaking.
If you, you know, mindfullyhydrate, now I'm not saying
drink a gallon before you go onstage.
That was not gonna work.
(10:52):
Yeah.
Judy Oskam (10:52):
That would not be good.
Andrea Spyros (10:53):
But the day before, right?
Definitely like if you're not,oh, plan hydrating planet the
day before, extra hydrate, havesome, a little bit of water with
you on, on stage.
And that will help.
I mean, it really helps yourbrain.
Um, and it all definitely helpsyour body so you can speak more
clearly.
The next one is, um, pausing,and this is the scariest one
(11:14):
besides breathing.
It kind of goes, yeah, it kindof goes with breathing but
pausing, right?
People think that they're afraidto pause and on clubhouse where
you and I do a lot of work,pausing is a little different
because there's an energy to theroom on clubhouse and the way it
works.
(11:35):
So that's a little bit artfulpause.
I'm still working on that.
But pausing for your audienceactually gives their time, their
brain time to integrate whatyou've said.
So it's kind of like ifsomeone's constantly showering
you with information, you canonly take so much, but, or I, I
(11:55):
just thought of it this way.
It's like, if, if I'm throwingthings to you, if I'm throwing
balls to you, you can only catchso many balls.
Judy Oskam (12:00):
Right?
Andrea Spyros (12:01):
Right.
But if I pause and give you achance to put them in a place
and put them down, then you canreceive more of those.
And it's the same way withinformation.
If you keep throwing your moreinformation, they can only
handle so much.
And then the rest of it justgets lost.
And so if you give them a pause,they can integrate that
(12:22):
information and then be ready toreceive more.
Now I think it's reallyimportant for people who are
speaking to remember that thepause is for the audience,
right?
It's for the people that you arespeaking to.
So you're doing them a serviceand that they will be grateful
to you for giving them thattime.
(12:44):
And that it's not about you.
You will have to do somebreathing.
Maybe the first few times you dothis so that you can deal with
your own feelings of anxietyabout being silent in your
meeting on stage or whateveraudience you have.
Now I have a couple tricks hereor you can maybe, maybe you
could ask a question too.
(13:05):
Exactly.
Exactly.
So that is one of the tips Ihave is like ask a question and
then be silent.
Because obviously if you ask aquestion, you would listen.
If you're asking them to writeit down, tell them, especially I
do this a lot with virtualpresentations, tell them we're
gonna do this for a minuteinquiry.
You know, whatever question youhave or think about this and
(13:27):
then time it so that it is aminute.
I actually, when I do my virtualpresentations, I have a timer
it's set to a minute.
We do a minute.
I give them a ten secondwarning.
I also feedback.
And then I am quiet for a wholeminute, but that's the way you
could.
It's hard, hard.
It's hard as a speaker too.
But when I, when I set that up,it helps me and helps them.
(13:51):
Now I'm better at pausing justfor a pause.
Now I've done that.
But that's a great way, likeasking a question and telling
them the exact amount of timethat you're going to be silent
and even say, I'm gonna be quietto give you time to fully think
about that.
Right.
Then they expect it.
It's like you've created acontract because what most
people fear is that they'regonna lose the audience that
(14:14):
they're gonna look foolish, butyou're not.
So the pause is so importantbecause the audience really
needs time to go.
What do I think about that?
What do I feel about that?
Where am I gonna link that withwhat I already know?
How am I gonna act on that?
And just do some integration.
So that hands down is reallyimportant.
(14:35):
And the final hip is to stand upnow, especially with virtual
presentations, most people dostand in a lot of other
presentations, but some don't,I'm always surprised.
I stand during all my virtualpresentations.
I stand during this podcast,even though it's a podcast, no
one can tell, but I think peoplecan tell because there's a
different tone in my voice.
(14:56):
I feel more stable and activethan I do when I'm sitting down.
And I think that comes throughin my voice.
And I think people can tell thateven if you can't tell for
yourself, right, and you wannabe at the ready for your
audience, you wanna be ready todeliver.
You wanna be able to Zig and zagwith your own self, even if
(15:16):
you're not taking Q and a, butyou wanna be able to go, Ooh, in
your head, you're thinking, oh,that's not, I'm, I'm going a
little off track, but I canwrite that.
And where do you have moreflexibility when you're standing
and you don't necessarily havethat when you're sitting.
So I think that energy comesthrough when you're standing.
I think that, uh, you are ableto recover from any strays,
(15:38):
right?
That you, you may think theaudience, your audience
generally doesn't know that.
Um, but you might know it.
You're able to recover andyou're able to be more powerful
speaker when you're standing up.
So my five tips vary your voice,breathe, hydrate, pause, and
(15:59):
stand up.
Judy Oskam (16:00):
Love it, Andy.
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to share this withmy students and our listeners
all over the world.
So fantastic.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Andrea Spyros (16:09):
You're so welcome, Judy.
I always love working with you.
I look forward to, uh, oursessions and, uh, anybody who
needs just, you know, reach outand we will connect.
Judy Oskam (16:20):
Sounds Great.
Thanks.
Thank you for listening toStories of Change and
Creativity.
Check out the show notes formore information about this
episode.
And remember if you have a storyto tell or know one who does
reach out to me@judyosm.com.
Thanks for listening.
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